Dan

  It had been some time since the Kodak escort and brought him to this new cell. While the scent of urine and feces was absent and the surfaces inside this pristine cell weren’t nearly as grungy or unsanitized, it still wasn’t saying much. Instead of a cell for violent criminals, this one appeared to be for solitary confinement. Dan was in a relatively polished box with no window to the outside world, no color, and a single light source in the ceiling that couldn’t be adjusted. The restrictive collar around his neck had disabled most of his HUD functions, including the clock that was built into his systems.

  The polarized wall across from him shifted like a dead TV channel until it resolved into a proper image of the space outside of his cell. To his shock, Li stood outside with a pair of Kodak guards close behind him. A section within the wall slide aside and parted, allowing his friend to enter his cell. Like Dan, Li was stripped of his armor and wore only a basic set of black pants and matching t-shirt.

  Dan didn’t get many chances to see Li’s physique under his armor. But after all the nonsense they had survived while being held captive by Kodak, Dan could see the physical gains on his teammate beneath the armor. Both of them were now equal in height thanks to their tier two ranking. Their skeletons have further strengthened and grown to accommodate their raw stat increases. Li’s overall physique was noticeably leaner and less bulky compared to himself, most likely because of the stealth specialist’s priority of swift and acrobatic moves over raw power.

  “Wow, look at us. I bet we wouldn’t even be recognized once we…” Dan trailed off, noticing the Kodak guards still standing outside. It might have been best he kept his mouth shut about any talk regarding escaping.

  “I know,” Li said. The door shut behind him. The entire wall polarized before matching the rest of the drab interiors.

  The stealth specialist found a spot on the wall to lean on. Instead of sitting on Dan’s bed, Li oddly chose to keep his distance from him.

  “I’ll get straight to the point,” Li said. “I genuinely hope you’re not considering Judith’s offer. Whatever she promises to teach you, teach us, we can figure it out on our own. I would never bend the knee to a Kodak agent.”

  Judith was a sick and twisted Kodak bitch and Dan would like nothing more than to stay the hell away from her. He also wasn’t comfortable with the idea of abandoning his friends and being a traitor like Kate. But right now, he was much more powerful than he had been at any point in his short time as a shard agent. And from his battle against the cult master, there were more depths to the workings of corrosia-based abilities he still hadn’t explored. Since the Alpha Corp hadn’t been particularly helpful in helping him understand his powers, Kodak seemed to be the only choice in that regard.

  Li was fiercely loyal to the Alpha Corp and held a serious disdain towards Kodak-Cresh, but Dan was ready to ask some questions that would dance across a dangerous line.

  He looked at his teammate. “Joining these assholes is nowhere near an option I’d consider good. But do you know anyone else who could teach us more about these powers? Nobody within the Alpha Corp is up for the job of guiding us on these powers.”

  Li kept his arms crossed but maintained a sharp side glance towards Dan. He wondered what the stealth specialist had to say about his not so subtle admission that he had thought about Judith’s offer.

  The stealth specialist exhaled. “Have I told you why I became an agent in the first place?”

  “Not in detail. You might have dropped vague hints back during the Combat Games when Angie was getting patched up from her injuries and we were waiting for her outside the infirmary. You mentioned an uncle but that’s it.”

  Li stared down at the floor. “When I was a boy, my parents were gunned down by a squad of Kodak agents who broke into our temporary refugee encampment. We were among numerous refugees temporarily living close to the border between Alpha and Kodak territory. Do you know how it feels knowing that your parents were ripped away from you just because of a rivalry between two giant conglomerates? And that your parents were nothing more than just more collateral to add to some datasheets or mission reports?”

  Most of Dan’s interactions with Li had always either been during a mission or during sparring and training. It was rare the stealth specialist shared anything detailed about his past.

  “Nobody wins in these sorts of conflicts between shards. Normal people like me are left to grieve over the destruction left while the higher ups get to brag about captured territory or assets. So before I even turned thirteen, I made up my mind.” Li stood up from the wall and walked toward the middle of the cell. He stopped and turned to look at Dan. “I’d join the Alpha Corp and do my part to crush Kodak into oblivion, maybe throw in the Church of Nanotology as an added bonus. It’s simplistic, but if your enemies are utterly crushed, then the conflict stops, right?”

  It was an admittedly simple worldview. But from the edge in his voice and his tight jaw, Dan thought it was best to keep quiet.

  “That is why I will never join Kodak, even if the only other option is death,” Li said. “Judith will never get the opportunity to use me to accomplish her goals. No Kodak agent has the right to have any authority over me. Not after what happened to my parents.”

  The stealth specialist had never been this open about his inner motivations as an agent and his hatred of Kodak. Dan could only sit on his bed and keep his mouth shut. He wasn’t sure whether Li needed comfort, placating or whatever else. It just simply wasn’t easy to speak about emotions or vulnerability. For every obstacle Dan had encountered, he simply powered through.

  “I’m sure you’re wondering the point of me being this open,” Li said. “My backstory isn’t just for context or because I might die or be used as a test subject when I refuse Judith’s offer. This… is a threat to you.”

  Dan looked up at his teammate and blinked. “Wait, what?”

  Li slowly walked toward Dan and stood over him. The stealth specialist kept his cold and serious gaze on him. “Kodak gets nothing from us, even if it kills me. If you ever entertain joining Kodak, I will hold nothing back in stopping you. That includes killing you and denying Judith her prize. Do we have an understanding between you and I?”

  Dan sat on his bed dumbfounded at his own friend and teammate threatening his life. The closest someone came to threatening him who wasn’t an enemy was Jane. But she was his squad leader. Jane made such threats in a harsh, almost friendly way where she simply had high expectations of him and if he fell short, then he was unworthy of her time.

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  Li was upfront and direct with his words. If Dan said yes to Judith’s offer to join the Bloodknights, Li would end his life. Not just because he would be a traitor to the Alpha Corp, but also to deny Kodak from winning anything out if this situation.

  Dan huffed. “That’s super harsh Li. But yeah, I understand.”

  “One more thing I’ll add, my threat to you isn’t from a place of malice,” the stealth specialist said. “It’s a smart move for me to deny Kodak from gaining a deadly agent who can become an even bigger threat in the future. But I would do it to keep your honor intact. I can’t imagine how Jane, Allen or Angie would react if they knew you sold them out to cross to the other side. It would be a shame if you went the same route as Kate Razor. At least you would die by my hand and no one else would know you actually tried to join Kodak.”

  The image of Kate and all the anger that bubbled within him when he remembered her betrayal during Amethyst and their next encounters after that mess made him curl his fists. But he smiled. Li had reminded him that there were no worse things in the world than selling out your own people.

  The wall across from them dissolved into a clear pane of glass and a guard stood outside the section that opened.

  “Your time is up,” a husky voice said. “Get moving or I’ll come in a drag you out.”

  Li glanced at the guard but then his eyes shifted back on Dan. “Think carefully about your answer to Judith. I’ve never had to raise arms against a comrade before. Don’t let yourself be my first.”

  The stealth specialist walked away from him. Oddly, even without his stealth suit, his footsteps were near silent as he walked through the opened section of the wall. The entire surface polarized to match the rest of the interiors.

  ***

  Dan paced back and forth in his cell. The conversation between him and Li replayed over and over in his mind which prevented him from even taking a nap.

  Not having access to his HUD was a pain in the ass. The room was so quiet that he could hear his own pulse. The lack of color or any distinguishing features plus no windows got on his nerves. He found himself taking random swipes in the air as kept pacing. Even with all the enhancements to his cognitive function and whatever hell he had endured during training and in previous missions, something about being locked up in a room by yourself in isolation with no concept of time or what was happening outside affected him in more ways than he wanted to admit.

  Even with how much of a shithole New York and the entirety of the United States was, solitary confinement had been banned for how inhumane and cruel it was as a punishment, even to the worst criminal offenders.

  The wall shimmered again and became transparent, showing another visitor waiting outside. Dan felt a bizarre sense of relief at seeing something different from the drab interiors of his cell. But the brief respite from the isolations was soon replaced with dread and anger as he saw Kate Razor standing outside with a guard escort.

  The section within the transparent wall slid aside and the blonde stepped in.

  Dan groaned. “Oh hell. What could you possibly want?”

  Unlike with Li, the guards behind Kate stepped into the cell with her.

  “Listen, I know we don’t get along,” she said.

  “What gave it away?” Dan said bitterly.

  Kate lightly exhaled before continuing. “I wanted to check in on you to see where you stand on Judith’s ridiculous offer.”

  The two guards behind Kate glanced at her and kepts their rifles ready. Dan guessed that Kate still wasn’t fully accepted into Kodak even after giving up everything she had with the Alpha Corp.

  “Oh wouldn’t you like to know,” Dan said. He continued pacing back and forth as if Kate and the guards weren’t in the same room. He didn’t want to admit that the experience was much less mentally torturous now that he had company, even if they were his enemies. It was strange what isolation could do to the human mind.

  He sighed. “Why the hell not? No matter what my choice is, I’ll either sell my soul to Judith or my life would just end as a test subject or from my teammate stopping me from crossing over. As far as I see it, I have no good options here. You know what I truly want in this mess? I just want to get the fuck out of here and be back with my people. Oh and I’ll take Li with me too. He hates it here even more than I do.”

  Kate’s cold composure broke when Dan mentioned his people. He saw the subtle twitch on her face at that exact moment.

  “I mean, you know that better than I do. I see the way Colleen and the others treat you,” Dan said. “Not much job security from the looks of it. Outside of Adam, the other Kodak agents treat you as just another faceless grunt at best. At worst, well… even Ada pistol whipped you when you got annoying. But that was funny though.”

  Kate grumbled something before she said, “Yeah, I can see you and her have been getting along.”

  “At least she doesn’t make my blood pressure jump,” Dan spat back. “But let’s forget about that. If I join Judith, assuming Li doesn’t kill me first for being a sellout, I know her offer has a bunch of strings attached. The way she just discards bonds and relationships doesn’t sit right with me. I could imagine being ordered to blow a civilian’s brains out by that maniac just because he looked at her funny.”

  When Kate didn’t immediately respond, Dan pressed even further. “Honestly, I don’t think I’ve ever seen Jane be that abusive to a subordinate like how you get treated by this fuckers. Was it worth trading Jane for Kodak bitches like Colleen and Judith?”

  The guard behind Kate’s left shifted at Dan’s insult towards the leadership. From mentioning Jane, a brief memory popped in his mind of a training session he had with her. When Jane had his arm in a lock and he didn’t yield, she broke his arm and left him screaming in pain on the training floor. But then, she injected him with a healing stim then lectured him about the importance of backing down when the odds were massively stacked against you. She made him a promise that he would be broken but then built back up.

  Kate finally spoke up, but it was a whisper. “No, it wasn’t. Not at all.”

  “Then you’re a moron, Kate,” he said. “After my mom was killed, I had no one in this world. But when Michael saved my life and introduced me to this life as a shard agent, I got my second chance. And all the Alpha agents I’ve met, those guys were my new family. I didn’t know you guys for that long, the original team before the whole mess in Amethyst. But it was nice while it lasted. It would have been nice to get to know Ben and Hailey. It’s a shame I won’t get the opportunity. You know, because they’re dead?”

  Kate winced at the jab at the end. But Dan saw no reason to hold back. He finally had a chance to face the blond in person that wasn’t a combat situation. He might as well lay it all out.

  “You know I leveled up quite a bit since I was captured,” Dan said. He didn’t hold back his grin. “I bet I could whoop your ass right now. I won’t even need to take off this collar. I’m strong enough without my berserk.”

  The two guards behind Kate raised their weapons at him, but Kate spread her arms out in front of them. “No, stand down.”

  The guards lowered their guns, but still remained cautious. They both kept their fingers on their triggers. If word had spread about Dan managing to fight and kill a cult master, then he was a big threat that was held in containment. He gave an amused huffed at the thought of being Kodak’s latest headache.

  “Whatever your decision is on joining Judith, we might not see each other again. I think you at least deserve an explanation why I made the decision I did,” Kate said. She turned around to both guards. “Leave us, I can handle myself.”

  The two kept staring at her, then briefly exchanged glances before turning around and walking out of the cell. With just the two of them, the room returned back to the same isolated and desolate chamber keeping Dan prisoner.

  “If you’re eager enough to determine the true source of your anger, then sit down,” Kate said. “I’ll tell you why I betrayed the Alpha Corp.”

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